Sell More by Not Selling

This isn’t a quote from any famous person, but I gets the attention of salespeople who want to sell more. Looking at your closing ratios, you realize that something needs to be done to earn those similar commission checks from two years ago.

In this modern, fast-paced world, buyers have the upper hand. Are you one of those salespersons who feel that pressure every day? Do you request your pricing department to scrape a few more percentages of the offered proposals more often than before? If you are, you are selling from the seller’s perspective and missing out on those bigger dream deals. Is that because of your selling skills? Do they need an upgrade?

Changed Buying behaviours

The answer is no. It’s not your selling skills. You probably went through multiple upgrades recently. Once a prospect gets your interest, you are on fire. You know exactly how to sell from that moment. But that is the key in the world where buyers seem to be in charge, coming across as if there are plenty of alternatives. How do you feel about that? You feel commoditized, and all your solution advantages are thrown out of the window, except if you can beat your nearest competitor on price. After all, they offer similar solutions.

Deep dive a little bit more into this buyer’s world. What are their challenges? Is it squeezing every cost factor out of their supply chain?  Research tells another story. It is a story of buying behaviours changing drastically. And this is in favour of salespeople. If…you stop selling from the seller’s perspective and start selling with the buyer’s perspective.

The real challenges buyers face

Companies big and small face different challenges than a decade ago. Below is just a small list, and they all have one thing in common: making strategic decisions to stay ahead of their competitors is becoming increasingly difficult:

• Increased global competition drives their commoditization
• Cost savings is not a great long-term strategy
• Innovations are hard to keep up with, and you cannot buy them all
• Suppliers become increasingly the same
• A growing number of company functions are affected by a supplier change
• The number of stakeholders in the buying room is growing year after year
• Everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants to be heard
• Often, growth initiatives do not even pass round two
• Gaining consensus seems to be the hardest part
• Everyone is fighting for a budget
• Increasingly confusion through fake research (often sponsored content)
• The status quo is often the easier decision

Hence, salespeople who recognize this and adapt their approach gain a few steps ahead of their competitor sales reps. They align their sales process to the buying process. This different approach is accompanied by a mindset and skills that get the buyer to the tip of their chair. What do they do differently?

It’s Not Me saying: “You need to change.”

Buyers recognize salespeople from miles away. After all, you have something to sell. You can change that buyer’s stereotypical thinking by coming to the sales meeting not as an account manager but as someone with advice. Buyers will be much more interested if they understand that it is not you saying: “you need to change”, but it is third-party research that comes with the evidence. If you are not too familiar as yet how to find this evidence, use AI to help you. This research is your backup of your business idea to help grow the customer’s business. Now, the buyer discovers that exploring that change with you makes sense. This is all happening in the Why Change buying phase. Are you ready to sell now?

Not your solution, but their solution.

Not yet. Keep the momentum of them discovering what is needed to make your business growth idea work. What are the solution criteria? Their solution criteria, not your solutions. You need to hear the buyer saying, ” To make this work, we must adjust a few things here and there.” or “What we currently have is not going to make it”. All you need to do is to facilitate that thinking. Selling is helping.

Sell more by not selling

Do you see what you have done so far? You are not selling! All you have done is facilitate a conversation where the buyer discovers that a change is needed, whether big or small. But the solution criteria are unique, and only one supplier can meet these criteria—you! Good luck with selling with the buyer’s perspective.